The vanity of this mortal life, or, Of man, considered only in his present…

Therefore it was his reflection upon those loving-kindnesses mentioned in the former part of the Psalm, contained in God's Covenant, and confirmed by his Oath, but understood according to the sense and import already declared, that caused this sudden turn in David's spirit; And made him that lately spoke as out of a Golgotha, as if he had nothing but death in his eye and thoughts; to speak now in so different a strain, and (after some additional pleadings, in which his faith further recovers it self) to conclude this Psalm with solemn praise: Blessed be the Lord for evermore, Amen and Amen.

We see then the contemplation of his own and all mens mortality, abstractly and alone considered, clothed his soul with black, wrapped it up in gloomy darkness, makes the whole Kind of Humane Creatures seem to him an obscure shadow, an empty vanity: But his recalling ⟨p. 15⟩into his thoughts a succeeding state of immortal life, clears up the day, makes him and all things appear in another hue, gives a fair account why such a Creature as Man was made; and therein makes the whole frame of things in this inferior World, look with a comely and well-composed aspect, as the product of a wise and rational design. Whence therefore we have this ground of discourse fairly before us in the words themselves: That the short time of man on Earth, limited by a certain unavoidable Death; If we consider it abstractly by it self, without respect to a future state, carries that appearance and aspect with it, as if God had made all men in vain.

We see then the contemplation of his own and all mens mortality, abstractly and alone considered, cloathed his soul with black, wrapt it up in gloomy darkness, makes the whole Kind of Humane Creatures seem to him an obscure shadow, an empty vanity: But his recalling ⟨p. 15⟩into his thoughts a succeeding state of immortal life, clears up the day, makes him and all things appear in another hue, gives a fair account why such a Creature as Man was made; and therein makes the whole frame of things in this inferior World, look with a comely and well-composed aspect, as the product of a wise and rational design. Whence therefore we have this ground of discourse fairly before us in the words themselves: That the short time of man on Earth, limited by a certain unavoidable Death; If we consider it abstractly by it self, without respect to a future state, carries that appearance and aspect with it, as if God had made all men in vain.